The 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass has given some of the very best players of all-time nightmares over years.
It’s a 137 par-three, where players look to fire a dart at a tiny target, surrounded by water, with wing swirling overhead. All of that with thousands of fans watching from the stands, millions at home, with two holes to play on the PGA Tour’s biggest event.
Advertisement
Brooks Koepka is among the players to have consistently struggled on this hole over the years. The five-time major winner averages four shots on his hole, and has recorded a seven twice. But that’s a far cry from the worst ever score, which was a 66 in 1985.
Photo by Chris Condon/PGA TOUR
How Angelo Spagnolo shot a 66 on the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass
In 1985, Golf Digest ran a competition to find the worst golfer who loved the game. The criteria included needing an established USGA handicap of at least 36, while competitors needed to play more than 21 rounds a year.
There were over 600 nominees, but there was one clear winner: Angelo Spagnolo. He shot a 185-over round of 257, and 66 of those shots were on the 17th.
Advertisement
As Spagnolo approached the hole, he was locked with fellow competitor Jack Pulford at 104 over. But he was about to gain some separation. Over the 16 holes prior, it became clear that he struggled to get his iron shots in the air, a recipe for disaster on the 17th.
He actually found the green seven times, but his low-ball flight saw it roll off the back of the green on every occasion.
Eventually, after finding the water 27 times, he resorted to taking out his putter and hit the ball down the cartpath and over the path leading to the green. He three-putted once he got there to make a 63-over-66 for the hole.
Afterwards, he came out with the understatement of the century: “The wheels came off a little.”
Advertisement
The worst score a professional has shot on TPC Sawgrass’ 17th hole
Spagnolo shouldn’t feel so bad, because this hole has made amateurs out of even PGA Tour professionals. And no pro has suffered a more public or painful collapse there than Bob Tway.
During the third round of the 2005 Players Championship, Tway arrived at the tee box while sitting in a tie for sixth place, well within striking distance of the leaders. What followed was a nonuple bogey (12) that has since become the stuff of golfing nightmares.
Tway’s initial tee shot caught a gust of wind and sailed over the back of the green into the water. No shame in that, he wasn’t the first or last. But forced to play from the drop zone, a tiny patch of land just 77 yards away, the nightmare truly began.
Advertisement
From the drop zone, he overcompensated and went long again, back into the water. His fifth shot spun backwards and trickled into the lake. Tway’s seventh, again from the drop zone, found the water again, and he finally found the green with his fifth ball.
After that, he three-putted to card a 12. In just one hole, Tway plummeted from sixth to 66th. His record eclipsed the previous tournament high of 11, set by Robert Gamez in 1990 and later matched by Byeong Hun An in 2021.
While amateur Spagnolo shot a 66 on the hole, Tway’s 12 remains the benchmark for professional futility on the world’s most nerve-wracking par-three.
Read the full article here
